Murdered Billionaires Case Takes Yet Another Bizarre Turn

The murders of a billionaire Toronto couple, Barry and Honey Sherman, took another bizarre turn this week.

Enter Kerry Winter, the disgruntled cousin who spearheaded a lawsuit against the deceased couple over the Sherman’s pharmaceutical empire. Winter claimed in the Toronto Star that his billionaire cousin twice asked him to kill his wife and, for their murders, uses Cocaine Anonymous as an alibi and maintains that his family members' demise was a result of a murder-suicide and not a targeted hit as police state.

The Star reports that Winter came forward to talk because of a court document which indicated that, just a week before his cousins were murdered, ordered Winter and his fellow litigators to pay the Shermans $300,000 in legal fees. The judge in the case ordered the payment on December 6.

On December 13, the Shermans were last seen alive and their bodies were found two days later. Last week police confirmed that the two were found in semi-sitting positions, in their mansions pool area, hanging from belts around their necks secured to a railing. Initial speculation that swirled around the deaths was that it was the result of a murder-suicide but police put that theory to bed and called the deaths “targeted killings.”

Now, back to Winter, the construction manager claims that Sherman asked him to set up the murder of his wife twice in the 1990s but that both times they were pulled back at the last minute. Winter told the Toronto Star that at the time of the alleged request he was on the street, on drugs, and “knew a lot of bad people.”

"He said, 'I want you to whack my wife,'" Winter told the CBC’s Fifth Estate. "I called him and said: 'You know, there's no turning back, Barry, if I push the button.”

Winters added to the Star that he is now six years sober and no longer knows people like that. The disgruntled cousin has not yet been interviewed by police but says he welcomes the opportunity to do so. Police have served 20 warrants in regards to the killings but none are for Winters.

For years now, Winters and other cousins were engaged in a bitter court battle with the Shermans. The litigation revolved around funding provided to the cousins and loans that were rescinded.

For an alibi on the night of the killings, the Star reports that Winters says that he was attending a 12-step program for Cocaine Anonymous when the Shermans were last seen alive and was at work the next day. In between work and the cocaine meeting, Winters said that he watched an episode of Peaky Blinders. That said, he told the CBC that he knows this doesn’t constitute a concrete alibi.

“"Very easy for me to have left work at any time because I'm not on the clock,” he told the CBC. “I could easily have driven over to [the Sherman home] and did the deed.”

"I admit to that, but I didn't, I didn't, and that's why I'm not nervous."

To test his story the CBC decided to conduct a polygraph test—although on advice of his lawyers Winter decided not to be asked about the killings. In the polygraph test regarding the other parts of the story, including the requested hit on honey, the CBC said that an expert concluded Winters was lying.

"I mean, why go through this whole song and dance? That's really the underlying question here,” the expert told the CBC. Follow Mack Lamoureux on Twitter.